Star by Eliza Witte - HTML preview

30

‘There were two main variations of the upper part,’ Aaron took the floor, ‘either an overall ornament consisting of two mirror-wise parts or two separate ornaments arranged in a symmetrical order on both sides of the dress. The man’s costume is also worth mentioning.’ He broached a new subject then while Annie was still automatically drawing a man’s costume.

‘The trousers reached down to slightly below the knee and were secured by ribbons that held in the stockings at the same time.’ Annie was drawing the ribbons at exactly this very moment, ‘Remember, elastics were invented only in our century.’

‘A typical Elizabethan collar worn by the middle classes had nothing to do with the Spanish fashion prevailing at Court,’ Annie took it up from him.

‘Laces, of course! It underwent a number of modifications during the 16th century, but the general shape was like this.’ And Aaron turned to the chart where Annie had just finished drawing her sketch of a collar.

‘Cotton and/or silk,’ she added, ‘and for the upper classes, richly decorated with embroidery. An example of an upper or a lower class, Aaron?’

‘Upper.’

Annie added the details in her sketch to better illustrate the embroidery and with this and the bell ringing the presentation ended. The entire class applauded. The students jumped to their feet and gathered around to shake hands with them. However, all of a sudden, Annie felt so exhausted that for a moment she didn’t realize at all what had happened. She looked even rather indifferent and distant. Ms. Johns was beaming with happiness, though, ‘Very, very good! Congratulations! You two, are you still studying together?’

‘Not really.’ replied Aaron shyly.

‘But that was an excellent presentation!’ Ms. Johns was elated with joy. ‘Just keep up the good work and you’ll make me redundant.’ She laughed but Aaron was wondering why Annie acted as if she didn’t care at all how good the lecture had turned out to be.

More so, she appeared to look at the end of her strength.

‘Could you, please, bring those books on Monday, Aaron?’ Ms Johns continued,

‘When do you have to return them to the library?’

‘I have to return them this afternoon but I can find a lot of things on the internet in the Information Center, so I could make some handouts for you,’ he replied. As soon as she heard ‘Information Center’ Annie ‘woke up’. Ms. Johns specified that having handouts would be fine with her and that she saw great prospects for both of them, and with this Aaron’s chivalric gestures for the day were practically over, but Annie surprised him,

‘Aaron, could you take me to… Could I come with you to the Information Center?’